Faith and Stuff: Part 1

DISCLAIMER: Please note that what I am about to say is pretty much ridiculous, so please don’t run around quoting me and saying I said God condones procrastination. The non-ridiculous stuff, however, is non-ridiculous.

I sometimes wonder whether God condones, and even subscribes to, procrastination. I say this for two reasons: a) because a lot of His people (ahem. us.) seem to be really, really good at it, and b) because He’s a last minute God. Think about it. He tells Abraham to kill his kid, which (kudos to Abraham) he starts to do. Abraham is holding the knife over Isaac’s body when God stops him. That’s pretty freaking last minute. In Egypt, He went through 10 plagues before the Israelites could go. Then the Egyptians change their minds and hunt the Israelites down…and just before the Egyptians get to them, He parts the sea. Jesus was not fresh out of carpenter/holy/debate school when he started His ministry. He was thirty. These are just a few examples.

Of course, He’s God. We don’t have to understand or like what He does, nor can we understand it in full. But I think we can understand it a little bit. God makes it clear that we have to have faith in Him and rely on Him fully. This doesn’t mean just praying and reading the Bible and writing spiritual-sounding blogs and wearing a cross. It means full, utter, total, complete reliance on Him, such absolute reliance that I doubt we could ever get there. It means breathing God, breathing His word, being so in tune with Him that hearing His voice is like hearing your own.

And as such, He is, in fact, a last minute God. I would not be surprised if He personally invented suspense movies. He takes you to the point where you know you have to give up; where you know it’s too late; where you know it’s over; and then, as easily as breathing in and out, He unlocks the door. You kind of find yourself going, “Um, wow, thanks. Thanks for that. I really appreciate all the stress and freaking out and everything. Yeah. That was awesome.” But that’s the whole point. We aren’t supposed to worry or stress or freak out. Because if we believe the Bible, don’t we believe that God is absolutely, totally, completely in control, and that His plan is perfect? Don’t we believe that He’ll take care of us until it’s time to go, and that going isn’t actually that bad? Going is glorious, in fact. It’s hard for the people who are left behind, but going means being with Him.

Or maybe, just maybe in our comfortable lives, where we are allowed by law to worship God, where no one is hunting us down or burning us at the stake or forcing us to burn our Bibles…maybe we’ve forgotten that believing the Bible means actually believing every single word. God does take us to the brink. He takes us there precisely because we don’t believe His word. And when He does, and He shows us that He really is in control, we believe it for a day. A week. And then it’s back to square one.

But imagine what life would be if we believed His words all the time. Nothing is impossible, there is no sky, there is no limit, there is no ceiling. It’s terrifying and horrible and amazing and breathtaking.

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him.” Psalm 18:30

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” Matthew 6:25-27

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Published by Veronique

20-something writer, reader, and blogger. I am the wife of C.J. Krüger, the willing slave of a black and white tuxedo cat named Aragorn and a ginger cat named Faramir, a professional student of old things, and a recovering coffee addict, among other things :)
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